Show 983: Intriguing Approaches to Overcoming Depression
The People's Pharmacy
Joe and Terry Graedon
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 March 2015
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Antidepressant medications have become part of popular culture ever since Prozac came on the market in the mid-1980s. Only those who have weathered a suicidal crisis themselves or watched a loved one face such an emergency may truly appreciate how inadequate our current antidepressants are in such circumstances.
Ketamine
An old drug, ketamine, is now being tested for use against suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Where it takes many weeks, even months, for an antidepressant to reach its potential effectiveness, ketamine kicks in within hours. This medication was originally developed as an anesthetic and is administered through an intravenous injection. Listen as researcher Elizabeth Ballard, PhD, describes the promise and possible pitfalls of using ketamine for treating life-threatening depression.
Non-Drug Therapies
Even without suicidal ideation, chronic depression is debilitating. While many people respond to antidepressant drug treatment, some do not. Others would prefer natural approaches overcoming depression.
Stephen Ilardi, PhD, has studied how well non-drug approaches can work to alleviate depression. They do require effort, but they are all within anyone’s reach.
This Week’s Guests:
Elizabeth Ballard, PhD, is an NIMH research fellow and clinical psychologist working in experimental therapeutics and pathophysiology. Her study was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research (Nov., 2014).
Stephen S. Ilardi, PhD, is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Kansas. His work has been honored by the American Psychological Association’s prestigious Blau Award for early career contributions to the field.
His book is The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression Without Drugs.
Listen to the Podcast
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Joe Graydon. |
| 0:01.9 | And I'm Terry Graydon. |
| 0:03.0 | This podcast of the People's Pharmacy is brought to you by Squatty Potty Toilet Stools. |
| 0:09.0 | They create healthy toilet posture for fast, easy elimination. |
| 0:12.8 | Learn more about toilet posture and health at Squattypotty.com. |
| 0:17.3 | That's S-Q-U-A-T-Y-P-O-T-Y.com. |
| 0:27.4 | Suicide is an act of desperation. |
| 0:32.5 | Antidepressants take weeks to work. |
| 0:35.0 | An old drug offers new hope for severe depression. This is the People's Pharmacy |
| 0:40.4 | with Terry and Joe Graydon. Katamine has been used for decades as an anesthetic during surgery. |
| 0:53.6 | It's also a club drug, known as Special K, |
| 0:56.4 | but in the right hands, it might offer a novel way |
| 0:59.4 | to alleviate suicidal thoughts in hours rather than weeks. |
| 1:04.4 | Antidepressants don't work for everyone, |
| 1:06.6 | and they can cause unpleasant side effects. |
| 1:09.8 | Non-drug approaches can be surprisingly effective for dealing with depression. |
| 1:15.3 | Coming up on the People's Pharmacy, the latest research on ketamine |
| 1:18.8 | and clinical insights from Dr. Steve O'Lardy. |
| 1:24.2 | First, this news. |
| 1:28.7 | In the People's Pharm health headlines, people who have had a heart attack are supposed to take anti-clotting drugs for at least a year to help prevent a recurrence. |
| 1:38.6 | But a new study from Denmark shows that during that year, these folks should stay away from popular pain relievers |
| 1:44.8 | such as dichlofenach, ibuprofen, or neproxin. |
... |
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